Rush Hour 3 - Ninety Minutes That Don't Rush Fast Enough
Rush Hour 3 F
Starring Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, and Max von Sydow
Directed by Brett Ratner (X-Men: The Last Stand)
Rated PG-13 for sequences of action violence, sexual content, nudity, and language
Appropriate for ages 15+
The Story: Officers Carter and Lee (Tucker and Chan) partner up again to stop a group of Chinese gangsters in Paris.
The Good: There isn't much here to brag about, but there is a set piece on the Eiffel Tower that could have had real potential. There's an Abbott and Costelloesque sketch in a martial arts gym, a Monty Pythonesque sketch with a Nun in a hospital, and a strangely exaggerated sketch in a Paris night club that all could have worked were it not for the contrived set ups and the lack of continuity with the rest of the film.
The Bad: From the opening scene this movie sets itself up as a movie that shouldn't be taken seriously. The first two pics can be described as a comedic Lethal Weapon. This third pic, however, almost feels like a parody of the first two. Gone is the impressive stunt work by Chan and slick annoyances by Tucker, replaced instead by unimpressive fight scenes and poorly written jokes embarrassingly performed by the duo. They try so desperately hard to be funny - and fail miserably.
As for the story - wow is it bad! The plot is completely predictable and even Max von Sydow looks like an amateur with this horrid script. It blows my mind that this dialogue sprang from the mind of screenwriter Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can).
The Summary: Shame on you Jackie, Chris, Brett, and Jeff - you are all better than this.
While I agree with the basic principle of what you're saying, I don't know that I can completely agree that Chan, Tucker, et. al. are actually "better than this." Tucker has never made a watchable movie in his career, if you ask me, and Chan's had about a five-year dry spell since his last success with "Rush Hour 2," which as a sequel I have a hard time counting.
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